If the Bollywood box office in 2014 was more about damp squibs than smash hits, this year, so far, has been no different. In fact, the first quarter report card suggests it is way worse with only four out of a total 39 releases doing good business.
A trade insider says box office collections for the first three months come to around R 375 crore, which is R 75 crore short of 2014' s first quarter.
" Badlapur and Dum Laga Ke Haisha proved to be above average. Baby was a high grosser, but also an expensive film. As it could not break even, it wasn't declared a hit," adds the source.
January saw much- hyped films like Tevar, Alone, Baby, Dolly Ki Doli and Hawaizaada hitting the theatres, but only Baby was applauded by the critics and its business grew due to positive word- ofmouth buzz.
The next month had just two releases that were worth a serious watch " Badlapur and Dum Laga Ke Haisha. The
other star- studded films like Shamitabh, Roy and Ab Tak Chhappan 2 failed miserably.
Trade analyst Vikas Mohan believes what worked was the content and not the presence of stars. March had only Anushka Sharma's NH10 to salvage the box office slump and did decently well considering its modest budget of R 13 crore. In these three months, while maximum films failed to survive beyond one week, none of them could even manage an opening above R 10 crore on the first day. Roy starring Arjun Rampal, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ranbir Kapoor registered the highest first day collections with R 9.10 crore.
Media observer Shailesh Kapoor states, " No film in the first quarter came close to making R 100 crore, which has become an easy target nowadays.
The audience has decided to stay away from theatres as the content of films has been weak and ticket prices have steadily gone up." Trade pundits cannot recall a single year since 2000 when Q1 of the box office plummeted so low. Says Amod Mehra, " The first quarter has been disastrous for the industry as it has borne a loss of more than R 200 crore already. All the films flopped barring Badlapur, Dum Laga Ke Haisha and NH10, which were all off- beat stories with small or moderate budget." Veteran distributor Ramesh Sippy labels this quarter's performance as the worst in the last decade, adding: " Chances of improvement are not visible in the immediate future.
If the box office collection closes on a depressing note, many exhibitors will consider closing shop and cinema expansion may head towards the negative realm. Producers need to pull up their socks and work on subjects and scripts sincerely." There is a flicker of hope in the second quarter which will offer bigger films like Gabbar Is Back and Bombay Velvet, expected to open in the R 10- 15 crore range on the first day. " If even one of the two finds audience appreciation and crosses R 100 crore, it would be a salvaging quarter for the industry.
Otherwise, we can say that it will go through its worst phase in the last five years, if not more," Kapoor adds.
Filmmaker Vipul Shah filmmaker points out that average' content will not work at the BO anymore, but is optimistic about the April- June period. " The next three months look good with Shoojit Sircar's Piku, Anees Bazmee's Welcome Back and Zoya Akhtar's Dil Dhadakne Do. We need to explore new subjects and the treatment has to be different," Shah says.
Analyst Komal Nahta, however, believes the second quarter might also be lacklustre as there are no Khan' movies till July. " Small films have worked in the first three months, but I can see the stars driving the business in the second half of 2015," he suggests.
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